How do you keep FSX interesting?

[ScatterbrainKid]

Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport is interesting because not only does the single runway stick out into the bay with the wind direction often across it, but there's also this range of hills and buildings smack on the approach, it was closed in 1998 but is still in FSX, as "Hong Kong Intnl (old) VHHX"-

[ScatterbrainKid]

GLIDER TOW
Choose a glider (this is a freeware Slingsby T-21), and sit it on the airfield, then hit 'CTRL SHFT Y' to make a Maule towplane appear. A few seconds later it begins towing you up; hit 'SHFT Y' to release the cable any time you like and glide back for a landing.
Noob tip- it can be hard staying behind the towplane without wildly yo-yoing up and down (the cable will snap) so try popping out your gliders spoilers (key /) to damp down the sensitivity while you're under tow.


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CARRIERS
This one is always permanently moored stationary a few miles southwest of the Golden Gate.
Select any plane and slew it with key 'Y' to a couple of miles behind the carrier and slew up a bit (key F4) to give yourself some height.
Set your wind from 67 degrees (blowing straight down the angled flight deck) at a speed of around 30kts.
'Save' the flight as something like 'Carrier' so you can keep coming back to it in future.
Noob tips- train up on a slow kite such as a Cessna 172, then select faster kites later. You could also set the wind speed to 60 kts or more to help slow you down, especially with fast jets.
Fast jets are hardest of course, this below is the standard FSX Hornet, drop your hook and flaps, pop your airbrake and try to land at less than 120 kts, flying straight into the wires without flaring (trying to flare can mess you up, I think some navies court-martial any pilots who try to flare), stand on the brakes before touchdown and hold them on til you stop.
(You won't see any graphics of the hook catching the wires, it's abstracted so don't panic)

"Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When they find it, they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?"- Rear Admiral Tarrant: The Bridges at Toko-Ri


PS- there are other carriers in FSX, they move according to a schedule, but you have to spend time fiddling with your ingame clock time and date to rendezvous with them, this thread explains it-
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showth...light=carriers

[tpollen]

Talk to your aircraft with Multi Crew Experience and control just about all functions including ATC, GPS and AP by voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=3ctHGND5I6U
Trevor

[TheBoeing738]

I quite enjoy multiplayer. It's fun to fly with others that aren't poorly animated AI traffic!

By the way, sorry about the bad quality pictures, they lose quality when I convert them in order to post them.

One of my favourite flights in Alaska - here we are at Cold Bay after an early morning flight from Dutch Harbour, it was great fun landing!


...and the next flight to Anchorage


Ahh... the fun of Multiplayer!!

[jomni]

This is how I keep FSX interesting... I sometmies fly X-Plane to break the monotony. LOL!

[mith]

The sim cam can get boring... if all you do is take off and land. So you might take it to the next level and try landing ILS etc. This is much more challenging. Since I'm pretty much bored with "flight"... I decided to take the plunge and buy the photo scenery from Sim-Savy. The thought of being able to fly anywhere in the USA and see scenery that's realistic really appeals to me.

I can safely say that most of us have been waiting for photo scenery for a long time. This is how I'm going to enhance my flying experience with FSX....

[TheBoeing738]

I always have fun exploring the vast regions of the world! I always enjoy a good flight in Alaska or Canada, despite the fact I have never visited either of them!

It's always good fun to land on some tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere

[ScatterbrainKid]

...By the way, sorry about the bad quality pictures, they lose quality when I convert them in order to post them..

Saving screenshots in JPEG/JPG format often results in poor quality because some colours tend to blur, so convert them to GIF format before posting them, which is much crisper.
I use the free 'Irfanview' imaging programme to convert them, and you can also use the tools in it to brighten/darken/sharpen/enlarge/shrink the pics before posting them.

Irfanview- http://www.irfanview.com/

[Jim Robinson]

A .gif by definition can only contain 256 colors, a .jpeg can use up to 16 million colors. That advice is flawed.

Jim

[CylonRed]

FSX Does not accurately simulate carrier landings? All aircraft landing on a aircraft carrier deck will immediately go to full throttle when it hits the deck. There should be no apply brakes - the wire will stop the plane on its own.